Factors Influencing the Attendance of Children at Two Dental Clinics

Objectives: This study explored factors influencing the time between the initial pain experience and definitive dental treatment, that is, time lapse. Methods: Parents or guardians accompanying children visiting two community dental clinics in Guguletu and Mitchells Plain in the Western Cape, South Africa, were informed of the purpose of the study, their consent requested, and then interviewed. They were asked to indicate how factors such as severity and duration of pain, efficacy of self-treatment, and impact on parents affected the decision to seek treatment. A 126 parents were interviewed in their home language using a structured questionnaire. Children up the age of thirteen years attending for treatment of a dental problem, on a particular morning were included in the study. Results: Parents from Mitchells Plain knew earlier of their children's dental problems (most knew 14 days before visit) than those from Guguletu where most knew within the last seven days. In Guguletu 69% and in Mitchells Plain 48% presented within seven days of the painful experience. Long queues at the clinic and waiting long for appointments, were cited by parents as the major hindrances to attendance. Close on half the children (43 – 45%) had not been to the dentist before. The worsening of pain, loss of sleep, and sensitivity to chewing hastened dental attendance while parental work commitment and the child's schooling delayed it. Both communities were in the low socioeconomic class. Conclusions: The main reason for the time lapse was parents thinking in Guguletu that ‘the pain is not severe' and parents ‘too busy' in Mitchells Plain. In the presence of pain the Guguletu children were presented to the dentist sooner than those of Mitchells Plain although the Mitchells Plain parent knew earlier of the dental problem.